Free Online College Courses Take Big Step Forward

Free online college classes known as “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs, have made another big stride toward changing the model for higher education. Dozens of public universities are planning to offer introductory MOOCs for credit to anyone with an internet connection around the world, according to a piece today in The New York Times. The universities, including Arizona State, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Arkansas system, are hoping that students who pass the free MOOCs will then enroll in the schools and pay tuition to earn a degree.

In the last year, MOOCs have been growing fast, with several start-ups, including Udacity, founded by Sebastian Thrun, a German-born Google vice president and part-time Stanford computer science professor, edX, a collaboration between Harvard and M.I.T. and Coursera, founded by Stanford computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, offering MOOCs taught by professors at top schools like Harvard and Stanford and lesser known institutions like the University of Maryland at College Park.

Millions of people have signed on to take the courses. But the big question about MOOCs has been whether they would someday replace costly college degrees. Until now, not many schools have given credit for MOOCs. As of September, several universities in Germany and Austria were offering credit for the courses and Colorado State and University of Washington were preparing to do so, though students at University of Washington were going to be required to pay a fee and also do some extra work with a University of Washington instructor.

The latest development is significant because the MOOCs will remain totally free and they will be given the same credit as a paying course at the participating universities. “We’re taking the MOOC idea, but now it will be part of a degree program, not a novelty,” Randy Best told the Times. Best is chairman of Academic Partnerships, a five-year-old company based in Dallas that helps public universities move their courses online.

The new program is called MOOC2Degree. Academic Partnerships will do the recruiting for the courses and will receive a share of the tuition the schools get from students who decide to keep going and earn degrees.

Most of the first MOOC2Degree courses will be in professional development programs like a master’s in education or a bachelor’s degree in nursing. But one of the participating schools, University of Cincinnati, will offer a course called Innovation and Design Thinking, which a student could use toward a degree in business or engineering.

The University of Texas in Arlington has already worked with Academic Partnerships to offer a free online course as a path to earning a bachelor’s degree for nurses who already have an R.N. Academic Partnerships chairman Best told the Times that up to 84% of students who took the first course returned and paid for subsequent courses.

“Universities bring in students who wouldn’t have come to them otherwise, and have a chance to observe the academic preparedness of students before they start a degree,” Best told the Times. “And students get to try risk-free learning, online.”

Though the news is a major step for MOOCs, free online courses are still a long way from replacing costly degree programs. But there is no question MOOCs are gaining in popularity and that many schools are trying to figure out whether to integrate MOOCs into their curricula. At the same time, MOOCs pose a huge potential threat to traditional university programs. It’s also not clear how the MOOC start-ups will earn money. Using MOOCs as a recruiting tool is a way for the schools offering the MOOCs to profit from the free courses.

In February 2018, I took on a new job managing and writing Forbes' education coverage. I'd spent the previous two years on the Entrepreneurs team, following six years writing for the Leadership channel. My mission with education is to explore the intersection of education a...